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Financial Services Committee Chair Jeb Hensarling circulated to Members of the Committee on Financial Services a “Views and Estimates” document for markup. Once adopted by the full committee, the document will be transmitted to the Budget Committee “to be set forth in the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018.”

The document is required by section 301(d) of the Congressional Budget Act which requires “each standing committee to submit to the Committee on the Budget, not later than six weeks after the President submits his budget or upon the request of the Budget Committee: (i) its views and estimates with respect to all matters to be set forth in the concurrent resolution on the budget for the ensuing fiscal year that are within its jurisdiction or function; and (ii) an estimate of the total amounts of new budget authority and budget outlays to be provided or authorized in all bills and resolutions within its jurisdiction that it intends to be effective during that fiscal year.”

The document includes the following recommendations:

“replace the failed aspects of the Dodd-Frank Act with free-market alternatives”;

“place the non-monetary policy activities of the independent agencies within the Committee’s jurisdiction on the appropriations process”;

“replac[e] the Orderly Liquidation Authority with established bankruptcy procedures, wherein shareholder and creditor claims are resolved pursuant to the rule of law rather than the arbitrary discretion of regulator”;

“enhance accountability and lead to greater transparency” at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) by reforming the CFPB’s “operations and unconstitutional structure, including by subjecting the CFPB to Congressional appropriations process, and by reforming the CFPB’s statutory mandate to ensure that it takes into account, and seeks to promote, robust market competition”;

“modernize the SEC’s operations and structure to eliminate inefficiencies”; and

“promote greater accountability at the Federal Reserve by advancing legislation to fund the non-monetary activities of the Federal Reserve’s Board of 33 Governors and 12 regional banks through the Congressional appropriations process.”

Lofchie Comment: If there is an overriding theme in the initiatives contained in the Visions and Estimates document, it is that Congress chooses to assert its authority over the so-called “regulatory state,” or the unofficial fourth branch of the government. Most significantly, Congress is exercising that authority by asserting its funding power over the various regulatory agencies – particularly, the CFPB. Undoubtedly, many of these measures will be seen as reasons for Democrats and Republicans to fight, but that should not be the case with the exercise of the funding powers. The issue raised by these measures is not whether elected Democrats or Republicans are in the right concerning any particular policy decision, but whether regulatory agencies should be able to operate free of the political control of whichever party is in power.

The Visions and Estimates document provides an example of this in a section that examines the funding of the CFPB. Assuming that current CFPB Director Richard Cordray serves out his term, Mr. Cordray will remain in power until some point in 2018; he will keep his position for a substantial part of President Trump’s four-year term. President Trump then will be able to appoint a new CFPB director who could undo much of the previous director’s work and will serve well into the term of the next elected President, who easily could be a Democrat. In short, we could have a situation in which the unelected head of the CFPB is not financially accountable to Congress and acts in opposition to whoever happens to be President at a given time, whether Republican or Democrat. This is no way to structure a regulatory agency. Both Democrats and Republicans ought to prefer the CFPB to be funded by Congress and held accountable by elected political officials.